David Glenny of Bricco Fame to Open, Stirling, a Fine-Dining Restaurant in the Merriman Valley

David Glenny, who founded the Bricco restaurant group in 2003, is opening his first new restaurant in decades. (He no longer operates any of the Bricco locations.) Before the end of the month he will open Stirling, a fine-dining eatery at Liberty Commons in the Merriman Valley.

“I’ve always wanted to get back to my fine-dining roots,” says Glenny. “I was the manager of Inn at Turner’s Mill in the `90s when that restaurant was the standard.”

Glenny says that he was contacted by the developers of the project, who heard that he was eager to get back into the game. He loves the location, which is across the street from the beloved Weathervane Playhouse Theater and down the road from Stan Hywet Hall, and has fond memories of the area’s heyday.

“Back in the day, Liberty Commons was all high-end shops and restaurants,” Glenny explains. “Over the years it got a little rundown and was college bars and stuff. But now the whole complex is being redeveloped to bring it back to its old days of glory.”

He describes Stirling as high-end and intimate, with just 10 tables and a max of about 60 guests when the bar and lounge are included.

“I’m going for simple elegance – a return to old-school fine-dining.”

Glenny tapped Amy Wanek to run the kitchen, a chef with stints at Michelin-starred restaurants like Charlie Trotter’s in Chicago and Eleven Madison Park in New York. Wanek will oversee a compact menu that will turn more frequently than the pages of a calendar.

“The menu will change every two weeks and there will be a different theme to each menu,” Glenny explains. “The themes can be anything, like a particular farm we are featuring, a country, a cuisine, a color.”

Stirling, a Glenny family name – and David’s middle name – was selected for its valuable connotation.

“The word stirling, if you look it up in the dictionary, the definition is of the finest quality,” adds Glenny. “I like the play on words there.”

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